Character Analysis: Obasan By Joy Kogawa

In the novel Obasan, Joy Kogawa depicts characters that are in opposition of the crowd due to their background. Characters such as Naomi, Obasan, and aunt Emily exhibit a unique way that doesn’t follow the crowd. Naomi is the main character of the novel but do not reveal anything too deep about herself until later in the story. Naomi is the character that doesn’t follow the influence of either aunt Emily or Obasan. Naomi doesn’t want to hear about how her japanese culture impacts the way she lives. Naomi explains that while aunt Emily is ranting about how canada does not treat her ethnicity right, Naomi wasn’t interested in hearing it: “I handed the pamphlet back to her and started the car. The very last thing in the world I was interested in talking about was our experiences during and after World War II”(40). This reveals the thought process of Naomi
Aunt Emily is the one who fights for rights. Kogawa asserts, “Wherever the words ‘Japanese race’ appeared, Aunt Emily had crossed them out and written ‘Canadian citizen.’” This reveals the hate aunt Emily has towards the people that place Japanese canadians as only Japanese. Aunt Emily wants to feel equal to the people of Canada, she even believes that Canada may be more racist than America: “ ‘I hate to admit,’ she said, ‘but for all we hear about the States, Canada’s capacity for racism seems even worse’”(39). This hyperbole displays how much hate and how much change aunt Emily wants. Therefore, all these characters have different opinions and different contrary beliefs. Naomi was against both her aunts and wants to forget about the past. While Obasan is is the middle where she does not want to intervene with anything and is grateful for living in Canada. Furthermore aunt Emily is against the whole Canada because she wants to be treated right because her experience with racism is not pleasant. Therefore all these characters exhibit something against the